Dear Soul Arcanum:
I’ve had experiences related to astral projection for many years. The first one I remember happened when I was in high school. I was sleeping in bed when all of a sudden, I felt like I couldn’t move. I was sleeping but wide awake at the same time. I tried everything I could to move, but nothing worked. Then I felt this INTENSE buzzing. It felt like I had electricity flowing through my body. I could feel it around me, and I could also hear it! Since then I’ve had similar experiences, but not as intense. In fact, it happened just last week, and it still freaks me out. According to what I’ve been reading, these are the initial stages of an out of body experience. If I just let the paralysis and the buzzing take their course, will I be able to leave my physical body? What is causing these sensations, anyway?
– Malia
Dear Malia:
You are indeed describing the classic initial signs of an out of body experience. To purposefully project, you must relax and remain conscious when these sensations come over you. There are lots of exercises available in books and on the web to help you get out of your body as well. They may tell you to mentally “roll over” out of your body, feel yourself getting lighter, try to mentally “sway” back and forth, etc. So you don’t have to passively wait to be released; you can mentally manipulate yourself free.
In terms of authors, some of my favorites are Bob Peterson, Robert Monroe, and Robert Bruce. (Yes, they’re all named Robert. How weird is that?) There is also a great website I discovered a while ago called Astral Voyage. In addition to working with astral projection exercises, I highly recommend that you devote yourself to general spiritual development and meditate regularly.
Some of the most common signs of impending astral projection include physical paralysis, tingling or vibrating sensations, buzzing or roaring sounds and sexual arousal. As projection becomes imminent, one may also feel one’s limbs or entire being beginning to grow very light or “lift” up. Let’s explore some of these sensations and what is happening when they occur.
Generally speaking, the sensations that precede projection stem from your consciousness shifting into a different part of your being. This is probably unlike anything you’ve ever felt before because it doesn’t happen very often. (While we all leave our bodies every night, our CONSCIOUSNESS generally does not. Our subconscious minds are in charge when we’re dreaming.)
Most people will experience some of these sensations at some point in their lives, whether they try to deliberately astral project or not. When the physical body is extremely stressed or taxed due to sleep deprivation, extreme hunger, or physical accident/injury, many people have conscious spontaneous out of body experiences, or at least some of the symptoms. Drugs/anesthesia can also induce out of body experiences or symptoms, as can intense spiritual practices like deep meditation.
So what causes these experiences? Picture a cup sitting on a saucer, and imagine that the cup is your spirit and the saucer is your conscious awareness. Now imagine that the saucer is attached to a table (the physical body) by Velcro. Normally when we leave our bodies at night (and never realize it), the cup is gently lifted from the saucer. When we consciously astral project, however, we take the saucer with us, and to do that, we have to “pry” it from that Velcro. What you’re feeling is the sensation of your consciousness being separated from your physical body.
Please note that this is an extremely simple metaphor. In fact, some leading astral projection researchers believe that we can actually split our conscious awareness between our physical body and our astral body. For the sake of understanding here, however, all we need to know is that a part of our awareness that does not usually “go with us” when we leave the physical is separating during conscious projection.
Paralysis:
Sleep paralysis is the state where your body is “asleep” but your mind is “awake.” This is a very unusual state to be in, for usually when our bodies are asleep, our minds are too. When we practice meditation or projection exercises, we stretch our ability to remain conscious until it overlaps with the state of deep relaxation our bodies enter during sleep. We are “sleep paralyzed” every night, we just don’t usually know it. (Otherwise, it is speculated that we would physically act out our dreams.)
Though sleep paralysis can be terrifying, it is entirely natural. (What’s not natural is our conscious awareness of it.) Further, it is possible for projection to occur without physical paralysis. Sometimes we just feel deeply relaxed. The first time I began to spontaneously project, I was meditating in a seated pose when I felt my body slipping back and up. It was like I had two sets of hands, and one set was slipping out of the other set like they were gloves.
Sounds and Vibrations
If you don’t drag yourself out of sleep paralysis, next you may feel an intense buzzing or tingling sensation. Some people call these sensations “vibrations.” What I felt prior to leaving my body I would describe as waves of ecstatic energy that rolled from my pelvis up my body and over my head. Then a new wave would come. Each wave left me feeling a bit “higher” or lighter, and then the next thing I knew, I was out of my body.
Many people experience a bit of a jolt when they pop out, but for me, it was just a gentle lift. It is apparently very common to hear loud rushing, roaring, or buzzing sounds during this “vibration” period, though I didn’t hear a thing.
I should point out that my experiences seem to be much milder than the norm, perhaps because I had been on a conscious spiritual path for many years when I first projected. Because the non-physical exists at a higher vibration than the physical, the higher our consciousness is, the easier it is for it to transition into the non-physical. Someone who pursues spiritual and psychic development first, and then tries to project, would thus find it a gentler and easier process than someone who was new to spiritual matters and decided to explore astral projection out of curiosity.
Also, the more we project, the easier it gets. No doubt this is in part because we are learning what works for us via experience, but it may also stem from our diminishing fear, the natural spiritual/ psychic development that arises via meditation and astral projection exercises, and perhaps a weakening of whatever holds our consciousness in the physical body to begin with. (To employ that Velcro analogy again, think about how Velcro on a pair of pants will grow softer and easier to pull apart with repeated use.)
Sexual Arousal
Along with those waves of energy, I experienced another common sensation just prior to astral projection: some may call it sexual arousal, though I think a better term would be “energetic ecstasy.” It’s similar to the feeling of an orgasm as it builds, but it is suffused throughout your entire being: your body, your aura, your heart, your mind: everything you consider “you” and then some. This ecstatic energy courses through you in waves and builds until you lift out of the body.
The French call orgasm a “little death.” I think this is apt, because at the moment of climax, we seem to expand and merge with All That Is. Perhaps the sexual arousal that often precedes astral projection is the feeling of merging with a part of ourselves that is far more expansive and free than the physical.
May you explore fascinating spiritual territory throughout your life!
– Soul Arcanum
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